Barbara Berenson’s second talk will address women’s rights after they finally achieved access to the ballot in 1920. How have women fared politically and legally over the past century? Berenson will consider how women activists have built alliances and shaped laws in an effort to combat stereotypes, discrimination, and gender-based violence at home, at work, and in the public sphere. She will review some of the key developments over the past century and include a discussion of the long and still-ongoing campaign for the Equal Rights Amendment. She will also discuss the historical connections between women who opposed suffrage and those who oppose women’s rights today. Following Barbara’s talk we will have a discussion with Westford Women Leaders: Elizabeth Almeida, Ellen Harde and Beth Morrison.
Panelists on February 27
Elizabeth Almeida has been a member of the Westford Select Board since 2017. Before running for the Select Board, she chaired the Agricultural Commission and led the opening and expansion of the Westford Community Garden. While on the Select Board she chaired the 63 Main Street Task Force in addition to serving on the Dog Park Task Force, as liaison to the Bruce Freeman Rail Trail and as a Northern Middlesex Council of Government Councilor.
Ellen Harde was the first woman elected to the Westford Board of Selectmen, in 1972, serving until 1974, and was Town Moderator from 1993 to 2017. She has served on too many town committees and boards to list here. She currently chairs the 35 Town Farm Road Task Force.
Beth Morrison is founder and chair of Indivisible Westford Progressive Massachusetts. She has been a member of the Finance Committee since 2018 and was a member of the Fiscal Year 2019 Classification Research Group, appointed by the Board of Selectmen.
Barbara F. Berenson is the author of Massachusetts in the Woman Suffrage Movement: Revolutionary Reformers, Boston in the Civil War: Hub of the Second Revolution , and Walking Tours of Civil War Boston: Hub of Abolitionism . She is co-editor of Breaking Barriers: The Unfinished Story of Women Lawyers and Judges in Massachusetts. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, she retired from her position as Senior Attorney at the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court in June 2019. She serves on the Boards of Boston By Foot and the Royall House & Slave Quarters.
Hosted by:
The Westford Historical Society and Museum
in partnership with
The League of Women Voters of Westford
and
The Westford Cultural Council
Funded in part by:
